Visual Effects Society Names 2014 Officers of Its Board of Directors

Jeffrey A. Okun was re-elected Chair of the Board of Directors of the Visual Effects Society (VES) at the January 2014 VES board meeting. This will mark Okun's sixth one-year term heading up the professional honorary society's board. His resume in visual effects includes recent work on Hitchcock, The Watch, and Percy Jackson, and his first VFX credit was on 1984's landmark VFX film The Last Starfighter.

"We simply could not have a better leader than Jeff Okun, who consistently demonstrates his forward-looking vision and unsurpassed dedication to VES and the global visual-effects community," said VES Executive Director Eric Roth in a prepared statement.

The board named a slate of four other directors at the meeting, led by VES founding member Michael Fink, whose recent credits include Sucker Punch, Tree of Life, and Life of Pi, who was named 1st Vice Chair.

In her third term on the VES Board, Nancy St. John was named 2nd Vice Chair of VES. She is a production-side visual effects producer whose credits include Gladiator, I, Robot, and Ender's Game, and who once ran the Prime Focus VFX division in Vancouver, BC.

The VES treasurer is Gene Rizzardi, a model shop supervisor and special effects artist who's founded his company, Modelwerkes and Special Effects, in 1979. His early work included projects like Megaforce and the TV movie V, and he's worked more recently on titles including Bad Teacher, Crank: High Voltage, and TV series Lie to Me and Saving Grace.

And the new VES secretary is Kim Lavery, a former newswoman who moved into the visual effects field in 1994. She is a longtime board member who has also been co-chair of the VES Awards since their beginning in 2002.